Highway shootings don't worry KC-area drivers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Several shootings have targeted apparently random vehicles along a tangle of interstates in south Kansas City, but it doesn't seem to have rattled area drivers, who say they'll stick with their normal routes.

Police have said 12 of the shootings that have been reported since March 8 are connected but wouldn't elaborate. Most of the shootings, in which three people have been wounded, are in an area on the city's south side known both as Three Trails Crossing and the Grandview Triangle, where three interstate highways and U.S. 50 intersect.

"It doesn't bother me none. If he shoots me he shoots me," said Kathy Embley, of nearby Overland Park, Kan. She drives through the area at least a couple times a week, and said she won't alter that.

"It's just somebody trying to scare people and accidentally shoots them ... it gives him the glory of thinking he's high-powered, scaring people and that makes a man out of him, he thinks, and he accidentally hits people is what happens," she said.

While the shootings have some similarities in geography, time of day and circumstances, there is no physical evidence connecting them, Kansas City police spokesman Capt. Tye Grant said earlier this week. In each shooting, shots were fired from a vehicle just before reaching a highway exit ramp or road split, and the car then veered off in a different direction from the victim's vehicle.

Local and federal investigators have been meeting daily to discuss the shootings and cull through scores of tips. A reward for information leading to an arrest has been increased to $10,000.